


I once believed love would be burning red (but it's golden)

by Heyitsdaniela



Category: Chef RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Friends to Lovers, My First Fanfic, not so au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:28:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21673567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heyitsdaniela/pseuds/Heyitsdaniela
Summary: "If by the time you are 35, we happened to be both single, the Claire clause takes effect. We get marry and bingo, bango, bongo! You can fulfill your plan and I get to eat cake for the rest of my days”It is a promise that moves around the years, is a feeling that appears not so suddenly.
Relationships: Brad Leone & Claire Saffitz, Brad Leone/Claire Saffitz
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	I once believed love would be burning red (but it's golden)

**Author's Note:**

> It is my first fic, so be kind please. 
> 
> Song Title: Daylight by Taylor Swift
> 
> (All the rpf rules apply)

_ **20th December, 2014. New York, One World Trade Center ** _

It’s a party or at least it should feel like one. It is the last time before the year ends that they are all going to hang out together. Claire is aware that she is surrounded by great people, co workers that in the short time that she has working in the BA Test Kitchen, have actually become something closer to friends. She can hear Carla talking next to her but right now her mind in not in the right place. She apologizes to the group and decides to go out to the terrace.

Her boyfriend, well exboyfriend, had the audacity to send the most delicate and yet snobbish ivory envelop that was hidden deep in her night stand. A wedding invite from hell if you must. And sure, they had ended in good terms but the guy was now about to marry some girl from his office he swore he had absolutely no interest just a year ago. So, give her a break, she has the right to feel angry at least.

Claire tries to count her blessings, truly. She has a great job, great friends and overall, a some type of great and easy life. It’s just that when picturing her entrance to the third decade of her life, she had pictured all of this plus a great man by her side. Someone smart, kind and reliable. Funny and sweet, someone that could be capable of lifting her up every day and love her completely.

Charlie was close to be this, and for a long time, Claire thought she had found the one.

But now, she finds herself with this checkmark empty. She had moved on from the breakup and all, it’s just that she didn’t like to see that life had a fun way to mock her after changing her very well structured goal list.

“Penny for a thought, Saffitz?”, whisper a voice behind her, making her stop her mental self-pity party. She turns to see Brad standing, with a glass of wine in each hand.

“How do you see yourself in 5 years?” She asks him bluntly while accepting one of the drinks. She is very sure that she’ll get an answer. After working there for a few months, it was easy to find out that Brad, besides being incredibly smart, charming and friendly, always speaks directly from the heart. Maybe that was why he quickly became one of her favorites to hang around in the kitchen. He was everybody’s friend, and she got to trust him very easily.

“Your ole noodle is busy right now I see, but if you need an answer that urgent, probably I just see myself cooking here after that time. I see a lot of future in this place of ours”, he answers her with a soft smile in his face, grabing her by the elbow so they move away from the wind and noise. “Why do you ask? Setting some big plans for us, Claire?”

She giggles, feeling less upset for the first time in that night. Because, surely, another one of Brad’s signature talents is his ability to make her feel better.

“You wish, Leone. It’s just that I used to have a vision, and now some of it is pretty much an empty mess”

“Want to elaborate a little bit more on that?” looking at her with the same fondness that she had got used to (or at least, tried to everyday)

“Well, I got a perfect three-point plan. Work, stability and marriage. It’s just that the guy I had for point three is about to get married, when not even a year has passed since we broke up. And yes, he was a great guy and all. Even tough, a part of me just kind of settled with the idea of him and the idea of us, I was so confident I had it all. But as you can see, the plan is not going as smooth as I dreamed of. And it sucks, because I’m trying to see the whole picture and I should be glad that point one and two are working just fine, it’s hard to focus on when I’m thinking in I’m missing”, she ends with her voice close to a whisper and blinking away the tears in her eyes. It takes her a couple of seconds to look at Brad again, only to find him strangely quiet and pensive.

He takes a breath and carefully takes her hand. “Is this plan set in stone?”

“Well, kinda, yeah”, she answers softly.

“Alright, Harvard. I’ve listened to you and here is my counter proposal. Since my plan, vision or however you’d like to call it, moves around with what comes around, I can open a Claire clause”, he tells her with the shyest and yet, most playful smile she has ever seen on him.

“Claire clause?” She asks him, raising a brow.

“Yup! If by the time you are 35, we happened to be both single, the Claire clause takes effect. We get marry and bingo, bango, bongo! You can fulfill your plan and I get to eat cake for the rest of my days”

“Brad, but you don’t even like cake!”, she says while smacking him in the arm, amused by this whole act.

“Still, Saffitz. If you find someone else, that is smart enough to put a ring around your finger, then so be it. He’ll be the luckiest son of a bitch on the Earth. Send me an invite and I’ll even be your best man or flower guy or some other shit! But if by any chance that doesn’t happen, then you’d have me”, he tells her while opening his arms.

“You sure about this?” she asks now, very carefully.

“Yes, Claire. Cross my heart serious about this. I don’t really think of marriage that much, but it would be nice to grow old with someone like you, Harvard. You don’t have to say yes to any of the nonsense I’m telling you right now, but consider it an option”, he finishes without looking directly in her eyes.

And Claire, who is now the one to go all quiet, doesn’t put that much time into thinking about her answer. Brad, all 6’4’’ of energy and kindness, is standing there like the craziest and yet, most suitable solution to her problems.

“Yes, Brad. I’ll take your Claire clause as a plan”, she says, forcing him to raise his eyes and get all confident and playful, again.

“There we go, Saffitz. You got yourself the best deal in town!” And with the biggest smile in his face, he makes them shake hands.

It’s a promise now. He is her safeguard, she tells herself, trying to ignore the brief skip her heart makes while looking at him, before going back to the party.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm going to put the blame here to the discourse group since I suddenly felt very inspired to write this. Just a few thoughts/warnings:  
1\. It is my first fic written in English, so I apologize for any mistakes.  
2\. Not my first RPF, but the first that I write in decades (and the ones that I used to write were not very good tbh)  
3\. Their voices are not the most accurate but I'm trying to get there.  
4\. Now, it is AU mostly because in this fic Brad is single. However, a certain detail from our current reality related to Claire will come into place in the next chapters so be aware.  
5\. This was mostly my way to cope with recent news. I'm trash, and I'm sorry again.


End file.
